Doom: Tale of an average Marine, Episode One: Marine HQ
by That1GuyArty
Summary: Ryan Banks, a fresh, new, naive 35 year old man. Had just joined the UAC Marine program as an initiate, in hopes of being able to support his wife and son. He hoped that as a marine, he wouldn't be dealing with much. Too bad for him, he got deployed to Mars the day hell broke loose, now he isn't our Demon killing harbinger "Doom Marine" but he must get back to his family on Earth..
1. Prologue

Prologue Chapter:

This story takes place during the events of the recent Doom game, however, for now, it has no direct correlation of the story that happens in the game. This is a more, subtle story, one that was so insignificant to the actual tale of our protagonist "Doom Marine" that you can easily miss it, but regardless, this story needs to be told. This story stars a more unlikely hero, now compared to our demon killing, nightmare inducing, hell rising marine. The term "hero" is used very loosely, hell we don't even know if this guy is a hero, or does anything heroic for that matter.

His name is Private. Ryan Banks, fresh, young and very naïve to what he's gotten himself into, barely a UAC Marine initiate, he had no idea what kind of "hell" he'd get himself into (pun intended). He simply thought he'd be guarding doors, or in the very worst scenario, maybe knock a few heads. But he didn't think that by his second week, a code 666 (Demonic Invasion) would be actually happening. He always thought that those were just rumors, myths, something that wouldn't happen again, not after what happened decades ago.

Now unlike every other Marine and comrade at his side that went on fighting (and was eventually torn to shreds by demons) he grabbed the nearest assault rifle, and locked himself in his cabin. Fear running through every nook and cranny of his body, mind and soul, sweat streaming down from his forehead faster than the small stream of urine that ran down his leg, he could hear what was going on the other side of that door. Gunfire going off every second like a string of firecrackers screams of his "friends" being ripped limb by limb by the Imps that he can also hear.

'Oh god… Oh god… what am I going to do? What am I going to do!?" Ryan kept running through his head over and over again, with no real clue of what he was going to do. But don't be harsh on him, he wasn't exactly a tactical thinker, nor was he a natural born killer, damn, he wasn't UAC Marine material at all. The only reason he joined the Marine Program was so that he could make a decent living for his wife, Laura and newborn son, Cody.

"Christ… Laura… Cody…" The names of his two loved ones came back into his train of thought, hands shaking, he pulled the photo he always carried in his satchel, it was a family portrait Ryan and his wife and kid took last year. Wide Smiles on their faces, Cody was only a month old when that photo was taken. Looking at the photo gave Ryan a small sense of bliss, comfort, but that was cut short, as the door was being kicked down, on the other side of that kick, was a marine now turned into one of those demonic creatures, shotgun in hand and ready to kill whatever human was inside the safety of the room, that human being Ryan.

In those seconds, time slowed for Ryan, he wasn't a fighter, he wasn't a killer, but he is a family man, and right now, all he's thinking about is getting home to family… or at least try. "Laura… Cody, I'm coming home." Ryan said to himself as the Former Human kicked the door down finally, a growl erupting from it, the zombified person raised the shotgun and aimed its sights at Ryan. Ryan had the reflexes to jump out of the shotguns way before the Former Human fired. Ryan remembered the training his received yesterday on firing this assault rifle and repeated it in his head as he did the process "Okay… First, pick your target." He saw his target, one zombified human "Alright… raise your gun at the target… ok, now, turn off the safety… safety's off, and now… FIRE." And Ryan unloaded almost his entire clip of the assault rifle into the Former Human.

It fell to the floor, limp, Ryan killed it. At that moment, something hit Ryan, no, not a bullet or a fire ball, but this strange feeling. A sudden kick of adrenaline hit him, this newfound feeling of bravery, as if his balls dropped a second time. Granted he wasn't necessarily ready to rip apart the armies of hell (like a certain marine on the other side of the UAC Complex) But an idea came to him, the Hangars, there should be all the airships and rockets on mars there waiting for him, assuming they all haven't been destroyed or taken by other Marines and Scientists trying to flee from the hell storm that attacked Mars yet again.

He checked his PDA and looked at the map of the complex he was currently at, right now he was in "Marine HQ" not too big, although he had to pass through 3 major buildings, Barracks, The Armory, and Training Grounds, to reach his next destination, The UAC Research Center, which had only two complexes to pass through The Lazarus Project Research Center, and Project "Doomed" Research Building. Then his final destination, The Docking Bay, where the Hangar and his ride home was waiting. "Well, this is going to be a longer walk than I thought…" Ryan muttered as he out his PDA back into his satchel and grabbed the shotgun from the now dead zombie man. Up until this point Ryan hasn't hurt a single fly until he killed that "thing" just a few minutes ago. Now he's going to have to kill whatever ungodly beast comes at him until he gets the Hangar.

Was he going to make it? Hell, not even Ryan is sure, but he knows he has to try, Laura wouldn't expect him to give up so easily, not now, and he has a son to raise back on Earth. As he headed to the doors that lead to the Barracks, he said a quick prayer; he wasn't really a religious person until that man attacked him. "Yeah, this is going to be one hell of a mission home." Ryan said with heart full of fear, and shotgun full of Ammo.


	2. Mission 1: Barracks

Mission One: The Barracks.

Ryan proceeded down the halls of the Marine HQ, blood painted the rusted metal corridors, every turn he took; he peaked around the corner, in hopes that there were no demonic beasts of any sort waiting for him. He scavenged a newer, and less worn suit of armor from a fellow marine that had fallen during the attack. He also decided to take the ammo that he had on him too. Ryan then said a small prayer for the man, and continued on. As the halls got longer, Ryan felt like he was walking on the most fragile of egg shells, there could be a demon at any nook or cranny of this base that he probably doesn't even notice. The smallest sounds, even the drip of his own sweat hitting the floor sets him on a high alert paranoia.

"Get it together Ryan… they trained you for this, two weeks of actual fire arm and combat training, but it was training." Ryan kept repeating in his head to distract him. But to his displeasure, the distraction actually distracted him from the Imp that was stalking him in the shadows. The ferocious hellion made a low growl as a warning of attack, Ryan barely caught it in time to avoid the Imp's fatal swipe of its long, razor like nails, scratching the surface of his armor.

Ryan aimed the shotgun and shot at the Imp, it was quicker than the gun however, dodging the shotgun's blast and jumping onto the ceiling above. Ryan shot again and hit the creature in the back, sending blood running in all directions. Ryan wiped the blood that hit his face, giving the Imp time to recover, and throw a fireball right at Ryan. The fireball wasn't enough to penetrate his armor completely, but Ryan felt the burn of it, an intense, burning sensation hit him. He looked past that and shot again, right at the Imp's skull, blowing chunks of brain matter and more demonic blood into the wall behind it.

Ryan fell back onto the floor, the pain of the Imp's fireball searing within almost his entire upper torso. He laid there for a good 2 minutes wincing in pain until the stinging finally subsided. Ryan picked himself up, taking in deep breaths, adrenaline still running through him after what just happened. He glanced at the demon and… a small grin of triumph ran across his face. He actually killed one of those things, granted it could've gone a little smoother, but he fucking did it. "Damn, nothing that my training covered prepared me for that one." Ryan thought as he left the demon's corpse behind and proceeded down the hallway, and into the barracks.

With the electricity out, Ryan could barely see a damn thing; he activated the lamp on his helmet and slowly made his way in. He was mortified at the scene before him; bodies lie on the floor, over desks, and on the beds. "These poor bastards never knew what hit them." Ryan said, checking the foot lockers of the now fallen for any supplies. He felt kind of guilty, rummaging through these fellas belongings; sure, he never really buddied up with any of the people in this whole facility. Maybe it was because of the fact that these guys were killed so suddenly, and so brutally. Not knowing of the horror of that was going to happen. Such innocent thoughts (or not) may have been in their head, planning what they were going to do with the rest of their day, maybe thinking of heading the bar for some drinks… maybe thinking of their families back home. "Damnit… I need to focus, no time for emotions; Laura and Cody is my mission as of now."

But suddenly, within the corner of his eye in the darkness of the room he saw movement. Quickly he turned his helmet towards where he saw the movement with the lamp on his helmet to illuminate the area. "Huh… nothing; must be the fear and paranoia finally getting to my senses." But as he finished that thought, a large and pink hand hit Ryan towards the wall. "Gah! What the fuck?" Panicked, he turned towards what him, the color suddenly left Ryan as he saw the pink abomination standing 10 feet away.

The pink beast growled at Ryan, blood and bits of flesh dribbled from its large, gaping jaw. Yellow eyes lighted the area around the demon's face, horns that were also covered in blood protruded from both sides of its head. Ryan looked around; he now knows what happened to these soldiers, torn apart by a sudden attack from this pink monstrosity. "You… you monster." Ryan thought to himself. The demon, as if it knew what Ryan was thinking, smiled a twisted grin with its large mouth.

The demon let out a roar and began to charge at Ryan, Ryan quickly pumped a couple rounds from his shotgun into the creature's face, but it only slowed him down, Ryan then rolled out of the way to avoid a direct bite from that demon's large mouth and large set of teeth. Ryan then got up and shot three more rounds into the demon's side, but this pissed the creature off more. It charged again, but with more speed and vigor and while he didn't get Ryan directly, the right side of its horn winded Ryan's right shoulder and knocked him down.

Ryan, on the floor and beginning to lose this fight, saw a light, a bright blue light emit from underneath a dead soldiers body. He quickly shoved the body out of the way to reveal his ticket to winning against this demon, a shiny and most dangerous looking plasma rifle, fully loaded and ready to kill. Meanwhile, the pink demon turned around to charge a second time in hopes of finishing his prey off. Ryan picked himself up and sprinted into the mess hall, with all the tables in chairs in the way, he would have more time to get a more precise shot at the demon. The demon stopped at the doorway of the mess hall, it gave Ryan the ugliest glare it could muster, Ryan returning the favor with a strong (but very low key filled with fear) glare of his own. The demon kicked its legs into the ground like a bull before it charged. Then used all the rage it could muster to charge at a speed faster than any Pinky he knew.

Throwing chairs and tables out of the way he thought "Wow! I'm gonna get him, this human is mine for the taking!" But to his displeasure, Ryan reveals the plasma rifle and opened fire. The first ball of hot plasma energy went right into the demon's mouth, sending a piece of its jaw to the floor. The nest round hit its left eye, nearly obliterating the left side of the demon's face. Then a sudden barrage of plasma rounds hit the demon, ripping him to shreds. Once the rifle was empty and the smoke cleared, nothing was left of the demon except a pile of gore and a horn. Ryan reigned victorious yet again, surprised to even be alive he sat down on one of the nearby chairs to take a breather, now that the adrenaline was running thin; he noticed that the horn of that demon actually punctured his armor and left a sizable gash in his shoulder. Ryan took a minute to patch it up and made his way out of the mess hall.

Another corridor met Ryan as he made his way down at a cautioned pace, a bright red sign pointed at the elevator that led to the armory. He met little resistance along the way except a couple former humans that were mucking about. He dealt with the two and opened the elevator door, but to his dismay, an Imp was waiting for Ryan behind that door. The creature jumped on top of Ryan and delivered a swipe of its claw to Ryan's face; he maneuvered his head in time to not get hit completely in the face, but was met with a single claw to his right cheek.

Ryan used his legs to throw the Imp off, Ryan then took the Imp down before it could throw one of its fireballs right into his chest. Sending the Imp back into the elevator, Ryan got up and shot the Imp a couple times in the head to kill it completely. "Geez… that was a shitty way to end that fight." Ryan said aloud as he wiped the blood from the scratch on his right cheek. Ryan pulled the Imp's body from the elevator and then left the barracks behind, and onto his next stop; The Armory.


	3. Mission 2: The Armory

As expected, the armory was already looted before he could get there, disappointed but not surprised, Ryan looked around to see if anything remained that he could use. For his shotgun is down to its last five shells. "Huh, ya think they'd leave something behind… greedy bastards, whoever thought hogging all the guns and ammunition was a good idea." Ryan thought as he looked around the room, after some searching however, he did come across a box of shells and a frag grenade. "Well, at least I won't be leaving empty handed." Ryan chirped as he made way for the airlock that led to the outside surface of Mars. Ryan seldom had to make trips during his training to the Mars surface, once or twice they had him put on a pressure suit, but only for minor things, moving toxic waste barrels to the outside containment areas and helping unload cargo from supply ships.

Ryan found the last available pressure suit and put it on, they designed these suits to slip right over combat armor, and had an oxygen mask that clips right onto the helmet's air filter. But before he could leave, another one of those imps came crashing through the vent above, Christ these things were a mess, brown leather like skin, red eyes, and that smell… makes Ryan wonder if hell isn't just some large sewer. The imp took sight of Ryan and threw a fireball at him, Ryan took cover behind a crate and blind fired in the Imp's direction, he managed to wing the beasts' shoulder but it did little to nothing to affect it. Just then, another Imp came through the vent to join his comrade and ran towards Ryan's position.

He was a little luckier this time, for when Ryan blind fired over the crate again, this time he hit the Imp that was running at him, right in the chest, creating a hole large enough to see through, killing the creature for good. The other Imp roared with a tone of distress and began throwing fireballs with more fury than before. Ryan popped another shot over the crate and hit the Imp in the leg, this stunned the creature long enough for him to come out of cover and finish the Imp off. "Huh… that Imp didn't seem pleased when I killed his friend… makes me wonder if they have a larger sense of humanity than I thought." Ryan thought to himself as he activated the airlock to go outside.

The sudden change in pressure made Ryan feel tense as he first entered the outside Martian surface. Ryan has to keep in mind that these suits aren't built for him to be out for long; unlike the suits they give the miners and archaeologists. The PDA suggests that the training grounds was a hop and a skip away north (2 kilometers) Ryan cringed at how far that is, not that he can't walk an entire half mile, but something about it being on the surface of Mars makes it a tad bit unsettling. "Well, I better get to it if I don't want to run out of air." Ryan said to himself, he checked out the air gauge to see how much oxygen he had to work with "reckon 80 percent is enough to get myself there… I hope." Ryan thought as began the walk north.


	4. Mission 3: The walk

Walking along the martian surface it was hotter than hell (although he'd eventually know what that would feel like) sweat irritating his eyes, for he was unable to wipe the sweat off his forehead through his brow, "Damn, kind of wish I had those fancy suits the mining division is equipped with, those things have a/c built into them from what I've heard." Ryan groaned as he continued on. Eventually, Ryan noticed that the temperature began climbing higher and higher, and his PDA started acting up on him, he realized why as he came to a crater. The sight before him sent him behind the cover of a rock, frightened to hell. A large opening in the ground revealed what looked like some sort of mess of flesh and gore, Imps and former humans surrounding it gave the idea that whatever that thing is must be important to the demons.

Ryan managed to sneak a peek from behind the safety of the rock, and what he saw was horrendous, like a mother giving birth, another Imp crawled out of the "Gore Nest" as these things would later be identified as "Oh my god… it's like some sort of Demon breeding ground." Ryan noted, he had to get rid of this thing, otherwise more demons are going to spawn from it, and the situation will get worse and worse until Mars is crawling with hell spawn. Ryan couldn't take these things head on, outside, his gun is useless, and with the lack of gravity he may as well be firing a bubble gun at these things.

Just then, at the corner of Ryan's eye, he saw it, a miner, dead, but right next to his mangled corpse is his mining laser, those babies can shoot a laser hot enough to break through steel, surely it can deal some damage to these things. However, that corpse and the mining laser are about 30 feet away from the Gore Nest. As much as he didn't want to, Ryan had to slide down the crater and make a run for the laser. "Okay… this could get me killed, but I have to destroy this thing, not only to potentially save Mars, but to keep these things from getting to Earth, to my family." Ryan reassured himself, he took a deep breath, and jumped down into the crater, the Imps and former's taking note at his presence they began shooting fireballs while the formers ran at him, rocks in hand ready to bash Ryan's brains out.

Thankfully, Ryan made it to the laser in time and shot a beam right into one of the charging former human's head. Melting his brain into ooze, he did the same for other two formers and took cover behind a boulder. The imps didn't let up on the fireballs they were throwing; it was beginning to wear down the rock Ryan was using as a shield. He had to act fast; otherwise Ryan is as good as dead. He saw that the boulders lying conveniently above the Imps were being held together by some other weaker looking rocks, he knew what to do. Ryan took a chance, jumped out of cover and blasted the mining laser at the rocks above, it was just enough to break the smaller rocks and let the large boulders tumble down, right onto the Imps. Crushing them and killing them instantly in a mess of blood and brain matter.

"Man, either I'm incredibly lucky, or god is actually watching over me on this one." Ryan thought, still shocked that he's still alive after all he's been through.

Ryan examined the Gore Nest and didn't see any blatant ways to destroy it (guess that was the point) he tried shooting it with the mining laser but it did jack shit. In fact it just prompted another Imp to crawl out of the Gore Nest, which Ryan was able to kill on the spot. Ryan did then notice some toxic barrels lying around the crater, if he was careful to not get any of that shit on him, he could maybe use the barrels as a dirty bomb. The laser should provide enough heat to make the toxic sludge in those barrels combust and explode.

Quickly (and carefully) Ryan dragged the barrels towards the entrance of the Gore Nest where the demons were crawling out of. Ryan then crawled out of the crater, took a good aim at the barrel closest to the Gore Next opening, and fired. The crater erupted in a fiery explosion, knocking Ryan back and sending bits of toxic sludge outward, nearly missing Ryan by inches. After the flames and sludge burned away, Ryan looked down to see if his plan worked, sadly, he saw that the Gore Next was hardly affected by the explosion, with some bits of flesh blown off, it was still intact. "Well that was a blast" Ryan sighed, disappointed his plan didn't work.

He crawled back down to see what else he can do, but he saw something else, it looked like the explosion blew away a piece of flesh to reveal something hidden inside the Gore Nest, it looked like a heart, beating at a steady rate "Could it be…" Ryan said as he took aim at the heart, and shot it with the laser, suddenly the heart exploded, causing the Gore nest to erupt in screams of agony as it is melted away, Ryan shouted in victory, but his victory was short lived, for two of those pink demons (like the one he fought in the mess hall) crawled from the puddle of ooze, as if the Gore Nest gave its final "fuck you"

"Of course, how could it be that easy" Ryan sighed as he shot the fiery hot laser into the first pink demon's eye, stunning the thing gave Ryan time to take care of the other demon, the laser being so hot, cut through the demon's natural armor like plating covering the front of its upper torso and face like butter. After Ryan dissected the beast to his heart's content, he went back to the previously stunned demon and finished him off. "Funny, ya think with these demons being from hell they would be able to resist fire." Ryan remarked as he continued on, leaving behind the scene he created.


End file.
